Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a $100 million initiative to address homelessness and assist with preventing drug abuse.
The initiative, called The Safety Through Recovery, Engagement, and Evidence-based Treatment and Supports Initiative (STREETS), funds “targeted outreach, psychiatric care, medical stabilization and crisis intervention, while connecting Americans experiencing homelessness and addiction to stable housing with a clear focus on long-term recovery and independence,” HHS explained.
“STREETS will engage people continuously, from first contact on the street through recovery, through employment, and through self-sufficiency,” Kennedy said during an event on Prevention Day. “Law enforcement, first responders, courts, housing providers, and health care systems will work as one team, so people will no longer fall through the cracks.”
“Addiction begins in isolation and ends in reconnection,” the Health Secretary further stated in a press announcement. “Thanks to the leadership of President Trump, we are bringing Americans suffering from addiction out of the shadows and back into community.”
The development aligns with President Trump’s executive order on addressing addiction. “The framework for addiction treatment should parallel that of other chronic diseases — utilizing evidence-based care, scientific advancement, continuous support, and community connection,” the order states. “My Administration will drive a new national response to the disease of addiction that will create stronger coordination across government, the healthcare sector, faith communities, and the private sector in order to save lives, restore families, strengthen our communities, and build the Great American Recovery.”
Similarly, President Trump’s July order targeting homelessness sought to provide assistance to state and local-level governments for the “identification, adoption, and implementation of maximally flexible civil commitment, institutional treatment, and ‘step-down’ treatment standards that allow for the appropriate commitment and treatment of individuals with mental illness who pose a danger to others or are living on the streets and cannot care for themselves.”
